The WILDEST thing happened to me over the weekend. Yes, I got to go to Indiana and see my best friend Taylor for her 22nd birthday, but it was definitely not an easy trek there. Long story-short; I spent 5 extra hours in the ATL airport without a phone because I missed my connecting flight to Indiana and a woman stole my phone in Baltimore. Everything ended up working out (praise GOD) but it was one of those days where anything that could have gone wrong, did. I got my phone back and still had amazing weekend with Taylor (check out this post for details and pictures from my camera) but I spent the entire weekend without a phone and had a bunch of Kim thoughts about that. So here’s the story:
So my dad dropped me off at BWI 2 hours before my flight, like he normally does. We got breakfast that morning which I always look forward to. I don’t normally check my bags when I travel in the U.S., so I had a little trouble at security with my stuff. I forgot I couldn’t bring dry shampoo as a carry on because its an aerosol can and I forgot to take my camera out of my bag. Still, that was just a minor speed bump to the entire day.
I walked to my gate and decided to charge my phone in the outlet in front of me because my phone always dies halfway through the day. A few moments later, a woman asks me if we can share the outlet because she had this duel USB plug-in where both of us could charge our phones in one outlet. I didn’t mind and she seemed really nice. I started talking to this other woman, Brittany, who I learned grew up in my home town. I was also still watching my phone in charge of me, until I got up for like two minutes to go fill up my water 20 feet away from where I was sitting. I can’t stress enough that I was only gone for probably two minutes when I walked back to my stuff and discovered my phone and this random woman were gone.
I started frantically looking around in shock that my phone was gone. I turned to Brittany and the other people sitting around me asking if they saw where the woman went because she walked off with my phone. I have never had a problem with leaving my stuff for a moment in the airport, especially since the entire area is monitored by security cameras and people have to show their licenses just to get in. No one saw where this random woman went but Brittany immediately offered to help me try to find her and my phone. I started walking around the airport trying to find this woman and then logged onto “FindmyiPhone” on Brittany’s work phone. While all of this was happening, my flight to Atlanta was delayed for over an hour. This gave me more time to look for my phone, but I also had a connecting flight in Atlanta to Indianapolis that I didn’t want to miss. I probably walked into the bathroom 17 times in just 1 hour because that was the last place my phone was tracked to. Even with a long delay in BWI, I still did not find the woman or my phone. I messaged Taylor on Facebook to tell her what happened and begrudgingly flew to Atlanta without a phone and over an hour late.
I am actually pretty proud of myself for keeping it together during this entire experience. I like to think I can handle high-stress situations like this pretty well. I just kept thinking forward and wondering “ok…now that this has happened, what should I do now?” On the plane from BWI to ATL, I kept thinking of ways I could convince my dad to go with me to get a new phone when I returned to Maryland. I wasn’t super thrilled to have to pay for a new phone, or to be without a phone when I traveled, but I really thought my phone was gone forever and I had to figure out what to do next. If this ever happens to you, just remember to stay calm and collected.
When I landed in ATL, I tried to rush off the plane because I wasn’t sure if my connecting flight to IND was still there or not. When I was in the aisle waiting for the doors to open, I realized there was an old family friend in front of me. The fact that both of us were on that flight to Atlanta is a miracle. I told him about losing my phone and how I had probably just missed my connecting flight. He offered to stay with me until I got it all figured out.
I got off the plane and it was confirmed I missed my connecting flight. The next flight out of Atlanta to Indianapolis was at 9:45pm…5 hours after I landed. Now that I had a lot of time, my family friend let me track my phone again on his phone and believe it or not, I tracked my phone all the way to ORLANDO. My phone was practically vacationing on the beach without me. We could literally see where this woman was actually and he started calling hotels and restaurants that were near where we located my phone. I think we even brought the Orlando police into this and I had to describe the woman to like 5 different people over the phone.
During this time, Taylor messaged me on Facebook (while I was on my laptop) to tell me that the woman who took my phone finally realized she had it and called Taylor! For those who don’t know, when you put your iPhone in lost mode, you can put a phone number on your lockscreen so the person who finds it can call it. I put Taylor’s number). This woman kept stressing that it was a huge accident and she had just grabbed all of her chargers, not realizing that my phone was still attached. She immediately offered to ship it back home for me overnight and rushed out to FedEx. She sent Taylor the tracking number and it got to my house in under 24 hrs. Shoutout to my 90 year old Oma for signing for it.
Now that that problem was fixed, I was still stuck in the Atlanta airport for about 5 hours, so I did what any stressed out 22 year old college student without a phone would do: I got a few glasses of Sangria (sorry No Fun Feb), got some Italian food, did some homework and did a little online-window-shopping. What can I say? I was stressed out.
Thank God I had my laptop throughout this whole adventure. I finally made it to IND at like 11:30 p.m. that night and I don’t think I have ever been so happy to see Taylor in my life.
I spent the weekend without a phone, but luckily Taylor let me use her periodically just for stupid stuff like Snapchat and Instagram. The fact I was missing my phone didn’t really make a difference because I was with my best friend celebrating her birthday. I also had my camera on this trip so I was able to document the weekend. You can check out my my actually Bloomington Blog here.
Here are a few thoughts I realized when I was without a phone for the weekend. I know this seems like a first world problem, but I think anyone would be at least a little shaken up if their phone was stolen. #moderntragedy
- When you don’t have you phone, you can’t reach out to people when you think of them. I would see so many things that would make me think of others back at school, but I couldn’t immediately let them know I was thinking about them
- I couldn’t take subtle or random pictures whenever I felt like. Carrying around a big DSLR is a lot more of a production
- I literally had no choice but to focus on Taylor and make conversation with people around me…not that this is a bad thing! I just noticed people will check their phones to fill in silence or waste time
- I checked my watch more often because I wasn’t always looking at my phone for the time
- I couldn’t look up random questions and facts when I thought of them
- I actually felt bad using Taylor’s phone to check my social media apps because it made me feel like I was just so dependent on my phone and social media
- You know that anxious feeling you get when you can’t feel your phone in your pocket or forgot where you put it? I had that feeling all weekend
In conclusion, lets all be more mindful of where we leave our stuff, especially in an airport. I am mainly telling myself this, but I think its good advice. I am so thankful for everyone who helped me get through all of this and especially to Taylor taking good care of me in Indiana. Its still No Fun February and I did say I wanted to do less screen time…be careful what you wish for.
Has this ever happened to you? Comment below to make me feel better!
Thanks for reading! xx